Sawmill set-works.



No. 721,965. PATEHTED MAR. 3, 1903.

DE WIN 0. PRESCOTT.

SAWMILL SET WORKS.

I APPLICATION IILED MAY 23. 1902. 'ro MODEL. 4 s11nn'rs-s11nr.'r 1.

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PATENTED MAR. 3, 1903.

DB W ITT'G. PRESCOTT. SAWMILL sm WORKS. I APPZIOATIOH FILED KAY 23, 19 02.

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I PATENTED MAR.3,1903.. DE WITT 0. PRESGOTT.. SAWMILL SET WORKS.

. .APILIOATION FILED MAY 23,1902. 10 MODEL. 4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- limmlllllll 1111111111111111111111111 oz uuuuuuu L.

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DE WITT O. PRESCOTT,

PATENT OFFICE.

OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SAWMILL SET-WORKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 721,965, dated March 3, 1903.

Application filed May 23,1902.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern: I

Be it known that 1, DE WITT O. PRESCOTT, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain-new and useful Improvements in Sawmill Set-Works,of which the following is a specification and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

This invention relates to sawmill set-Works especially adapted for use in producing quarter-sawed lumber. 1n manufacturing lumber of this character the more common practice has been to subdivide the log into quadrants and then reduce each quadrant by cuts parallel to the faces thereof radial to the center of the log. The objection to this method is that only the first two or three boards from each face of the quadrant are what may be regarded as fair quarter-sawed stuff and that the remainder or about sixty per cent. of the log comes out as lower-grade lumber of less value.

The method described herein, in the per formance of which the machine or set-works of the present invention may be employed, is of such character that every board cut from a log will have the true quarter-sawed effect. This method consists generally in cutting up a log into a plurality of sectors, then reducing each sector by taking off one or more boards from each face thereof, and finally sawing up the remnant by cuts parallel to a line radial as to the center of the log, as hereinafter more fully explained. I would have it understood, however, that the inven tion is not restricted in its use to the practice of the particular method described.

The invention comprises, in general terms, a carriage movable in a direction parallel to the plane of the saw and having mounted thereon a pair of supports or standards preferably adapted to reciprocate across the carriage and each of which has pivoted thereto a knee, the pivot whereof is transverse to the direction of movement of the support or standard, so that the angular position of the sector carried by the said knees may be changed at will, and means for dogging a log-sector to the knees.

The invention consists of the combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter par- Serial No. 108,732. (No model.)

ticularly described, specifically designated in the claims, and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of the set-works. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a section on the line a: a; of Fig. 1, illustrating the sliding base upon which one of the knee supports or standards is mounted. Fig. 4 is a section on the line y y of Fig. 1 and relates to the mechanism for dogging the sectors to the log-knees. Fig. 5 is a section on the line PJE of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a plan of a portion of the rear of the reciprocating carriage and shows the means for moving the log-knees in unison across the same. Fig. 7 is a diagram of a log out into sectors, one of which is subdivided into quarter-sawed lumber as practiced by this invention. Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 illustrate the several steps in cutting up the sectors. Figs. 14, 15, and 16 relate to details of the devices for holding and turning the log While being cut into sectors, and Fig. 17 illustrates a modification of the invention.

Mounted upon a carriage 20, which may be of any usual and ordinary construction, is a pair of knees 21, which are pi votally attached to suitable supports or standards 22, adapted to reciprocate across the carriage, the pivots of the knees being transverse to the direction of'movement of the standards 22, so that the knees may be moved toward and from the saw 23 independently of the said supports or standards.

In the construction illustrated the carriage is provided with head-block bases 24 24"-, whereon are slidably mounted the supports 22, guided in their movement by guides 25.

One of the supports or standards 22 is provided with a shaft 26, arranged longitudinally of the carriage and provided with a head 27, from which project a number of spurs or prongs adapted to engage the end of a log, so as-to hold the same and enable it to be turned around its longitudinal axis, the other end of the log being supported by a center pin 28, journaled in the other standard 22 and alined with the shaft 26. A screw-stem 28, rotatably mounted in a yoke 31* and turned by a crank 31, engages the pin 28, so as to force the latter into the end of the log when placed between the head 27 and the pin, Fig. 14. The

outer end of the shaft 26 extends through the standard in which it is mounted and is provided with an index-wheel 29, formed with a number of notches corresponding to the number of sectors into which the log is designed to be cut, and adapted to engage this wheel is a finger latch or dog 29, pivoted to the standard 22, for holding the log against rotation, Fig. 15. The shaft 26 also has fixed thereon a ratchet-wheel 30, which is turned by a lever 30 through the medium of a spring-pressed pawl 32, controlled by a thumb-latch 33.

The mechanism for holding the log which is being cut up into sectors forms no part of my invention, the same being substantially shown and described in a patent granted to J. S. Grant, July 16, 1901, No. 678,658, the present invention having particular reference to means employed for feeding the sectors while being cut into lumber and now to be explained.

In the form which the invention takes in the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 the standards 22 are employed as supports for the pivoted knees 21,and the latter are provided with hubs 32, through which the shaft 26 and the pin 28 pass and which form pivots for the said knees. Each of these knees is provided with a fiat face 33, the end adjacent to the hub being formed with a well or recess 34 to accommodate the edge of the saw when the knee-supports 22 are in their most advanced position and the knees are tilted back, as shown in Fig. 11, and the said knees are moved on their pivots through the medium of levers 35, (one of which is seen in Fig. 2,) jointed at 36 to the supports 22 and connected by links 37 to the knees. Each lever plays over a quadrant 38, provided with suitably-spaced apertures 39, adapted to receive a springpressed pin 39, carried by the said lever for holding the same in its adjusted position, and the quadrant may, if desired, be graduated in order to facilitate uniformity of adjustment of the knees.

Provision should be made for dogging the log-sectors to the knees. To this end the face of each knee may be provided with a transverse dovetailed recess 40, in which is adapted to move a slide-plate 41, having attached thereto a dog 42. In order to provide for an adjustment of the dogs, the brace 43 of each knee, at the rear thereof, is provided with a threaded aperture, into which screws a rod 44, rotatably mounted in a lug 45 of the slide 41 and secured against longitudinal movement therein by means of collars 46 at opposite sides of said lug 45. The knees 21 are preferably provided with extension-guides 47, continuing the dovetailed recesses 40, in which the plates 41 slide, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the lugs 45 of the said plates moving between the extensions 47 when adjusted.

To compensate for irregularity at the ends of the logs, the dogs 42 are pivotally mounted on the slides 41 and their movement is limited by shoulders 48, located back of the ends of the dogs, as seen in Fig. 1.

At least one of the knees 21 may be made adjustable lengthwise of the carriage 20that is, toward and from the other knee-in order to adapt the machine to logs of varying lengths. With this end in view the carriage is provided with guides 49, arranged longitudinally thereof and on which is mounted, so as to slide thereon, the head-block base 24, on which one of the standards 22 reciprocates, and the carriage being provided with a longitudinal rack-bar 51 at the side thereof motion is imparted to the said head-block base 24 through the medium of a pinion 52, which meshes with the rack-bar 51 and is journaled in a bracket 53, projecting from the said head-block base and controlled by a hand-wheel 54. A pawl 19, pivoted to the base 24, coacts with a ratchet 20 on the carriage and is designed to hold the said base in any position to which it may be moved.

Any suitable means may be provided for moving the standards across the carriage, and consequently the knees, in unison. In that shown, Figs. 3 and 6, each standard has an interiorly-threaded boxing 55 at the under side of the same, through which passes a transverse screw-rod 56 which screw-rods are journaled in bearings 57 at the front and rear of the head-blocks and have fixed thereon bevel-gears 5S, driven by pinions 59, rotating with a longitudinal shaft 60, and provided with hubs 61, turning in brackets 62, secured to the head-block bases 24 24 and serving to support the shaft 60. The bevelpinion 59, communicating motion to the gear 58 of the longitudinallymovable knee, is feathered on the shaft 60, as shown in Fig. 6, so as to move with the head-block base 24, and the shaft 60 has fixed to one end thereof a bevel-gear 63, meshing with and driven by a gear 64, turned by a hand-wheel for imparting motion to the mechanism for moving the knees across the carriage.

In quarter-sawing lumber under one method with the machine herein described a log after having been cut into the desired length is clamped between the centering-pin 28 and the prongs of the head 27 and cut up into sectors, the number thereof depending upon the thickness of the lumber to be manufactured. It is found, for example, that when inch lumber is to be produced the log may be subdivided into fourteen sectors, and for such subdivision the wheel 29 should be provided with fourteen notches. This wheel being removable, one of a greater or lesser number of notches may be substituted, according to the thickness of lumber to be manufactured or other conditions. Each sector is then clamped by the dogs 42 to the knees 21, with the buttend thereof upward, as illustrated in Fig. 8, and the knees having been adjusted so that the outer face of the sector will be parallel to the cutting plane of the saw and the standards 22 moved up so that the saw will take off a board of the required thickness the first plank is removed. The knees are next moved so that the faces thereof will be parallel with the plane of the saw and the standards adjusted so that a section of the sector sufficient for two boards, being that portion secured by the dogs 42, will remain when the second cut is made, as illustrated in Fig. 9. The next step consists in advancing the standards so that the saw will rip in two that portion of the sector left secured to the knees after the previous out, as shown in Fig. 10. The remaining board having been removed from the knees, the cant remaining-that is to say, the uncut portion of the sectoris clamped to the knees again in a position like that shown in Fig. 8 and another board parallel to the outer radial face of the cant taken off, as seen in Fig. 11. The standards are now moved back to such position and the knees so adjusted thata line drawn from the apex of the remaining portion of the sector through the center of the butt-end thereof will be parallel to the plane of the saw, and boards are removed by cuts parallel with such imaginary line to the center of the section, as shown in Fig. 12. The cant is then turned end for end, inasmuch as the saw would cut into the knee if the 10,1 were left in the position illustrated in Fig. 12, and the knees turned on their pivots until the faces thereof areparallel with the saw. The cant or remaining portion of the sector is then reduced by cuts parallel to the faces of the knees, as shown in Fig. 13.

In the operation described itis assumed that the log is cutting the sectors into inch lumber. The mode of operation is the same, however, for producing lumber of other thicknesses, the only variation being in the number of sectors into which the log should be subdivided and the degrees of adjustment of the standards and knees.

In the modified construction illustrated in Fig. 17, wherein is shown only one of the knees of a set-works, the support and knee are so constructed and arranged that the logcant while being cut up overhangs the headblock, thus permitting of the employment of a band-saw as well as a circular saw, as illustrated. In the figure referred to 66 indicates the reciprocating carriage and 67 an ordinary head-block base, whereon slides in the manner of the usual rigid knee of a sawmill setworks a support 68, which is the equivalent of the standards 22 of the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This support has pivoted to its front end the knee 69, provided with dogging mechanism similar to that seen in the other figures, and the saw 7.0, which may be yond the end of the head-block. Under this arrangement the well or recess 34 of the former construction in the face of the knee may be dispensed with. The knee is oscillated on its pivot through the medium of a lever 71,'

pivoted on the support 68 and moving an arm 72, which is connected to the knee by a link 73. The knee is held in its adjusted positions by the engagement of a pin 74 with the apertures of a quadrant 75, secured to the support 68. These pivoted knees may be mounted on supports or standards capable of being placed upon head-block bases of an ordinary sawmill-carriage and substituted at will forthe usual knees. This will render the same carriage and saw serviceable for sawing ordinary lumber with the rigid knee or quarter-sawed lumber with the pivoted knee of the present invention.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a sawmill set-works, in combination, a carriage, a pair of supports movable across the carriage in unison and one of which is movable longitudinally thereto, a knee pivoted to each support and the pivot thereof being transverse to the direction of movement of the supports, means for adjusting 'the knees, a recess in the face of each knee, a dovetailed recess in the face of the knee above the well, a slide movable in the recess, a dog pivoted to the slide, and means for adjusting the slide.

2. In combination, a sawmill -carriage, a knee pivotally mounted thereon and having a recess across its face adjacent to its pivot, and a cant-engaging dog mounted with the knee.

3. In a sawmill, in combination, a carriage, a pair of knees mounted upon and adjustable transversely to the carriage, means for adjusting the knees in unison, means for adjusting one of said knees longitudinally upon the carriage, and a cant-end-engaging dog mounted with each knee.

4. In a sawmill, incombination, a carriage, a pair of pivoted knees mounted on the carriage each knee having arecess across its face adjacent to its pivot, and a cant-engaging dog mounted with each knee.

5. In a sawmill, in combination, acarriage, a pair of knees mounted on the carriage, each knee being pivoted at its lower end and providing saw clearance at its base when inclined backward from the cutting plane, and a cantengaging dog mounted with each knee.

6. In a sawmill, in combination, a carriage, a pair of oscillating knees mounted thereon, one of said knees being adjustable longitudinally on the carriage, and a cant-end-engaging dog mounted with each knee.

DE WITT C. PRESCOTT.

Witnesses:

E. M. KLATOHER, LoUIs K. GILLSON. 

